This practice has also been adopted in places where the same motive cannot be adduced: in Lancashire, almost all the roads are paved at an enormous cost, and are, in consequence, proverbially bad. At Edinburgh, where they have the best and cheapest materials in the kingdom, the want of science to construct good roads, has led the trustees to adopt the expedient of pavements, to a considerable extent; and at an expense hardly credible, when compared with what would have been the cost of roads on the best principles.
The advantages of good roads, when compared with pavements, are universally acknowledged; the extension of pavement is therefore to be deprecated as an actual evil, besides the greatness of the expence. Pavements are particularly inconvenient and dangerous on steep ascents, such as the ascent to bridges, &c. A very striking example of this may be observed on the London end of Blackfriars Bridge, where heavy loads are drawn up with great difficulty, and where more horses fall and receive injury, than in any other place in the kingdom. The pavement in such places should be lifted, and converted into a good road; which may be done with the same stone, at an expense not exceeding ten-pence per square yard. This road would be more lasting than the pavement, and, when out of order, may be repaired at less than one-tenth of the expense which relaying the pavement would require.
This measure has been adopted with great success, and considerable saving of expense, in the suburbs of Bristol, where the pavements were taken up, and converted into good roads, about three years ago.
The advantages of the system recommended is so obvious to common observation in the repair of old roads, and has been practised to an extent so considerable, during the last four years, that the minds of most people have become reconciled to it; and objections, founded on old prejudice and suspicion, have given way to experience, but the application of the same principles to the construction of new roads, has necessarily been much more limited. It will, therefore, require more liberality and confidence on the part of country gentlemen, and also more patient investigation of the principles on which the system is founded, before they will allow of its adoption on new lines of road. It is to be hoped, however, that the importance of the subject will recommend it to general consideration.
REPORT
FROM THE
SELECT COMMITTEE
ON THE
HIGHWAYS OF THE KINGDOM:
TOGETHER WITH THE
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE
TAKEN BEFORE THEM.
REPORT.
The Select Committee appointed to take into consideration the Acts now in force regarding the Turnpike Roads and Highways in England and Wales, and the expediency of additional Regulations for their better repair and preservation, and to report their Observations thereupon from time to time to the House; and to whom the Petitions of Joseph D. Bassett, John Richards Reed, and John Martin; and of several Trustees of Turnpike Roads in the Counties of Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, were referred;—Have, pursuant to the Orders of the House, examined the matters to them referred, and have agreed upon the following REPORT:
Your Committee considered it their indispensable duty to direct their first attention to the Reports of former Committees, appointed to investigate the same important subject; in these Reports, as well as in the documents subjoined to them, are to be found much scientific information, and many valuable suggestions, which have doubtless tended to aid the progress of improvement in the art of making and preserving roads. Still the object of amending the laws which relate to them has been unattained, the bills introduced with a partial view to that purpose having been lost in their progress through Parliament, and the suggestions for more general improvements having been allowed to remain without further notice.
If your Committee may be permitted to assign the probable reasons of this discouraging result of the labours of their predecessors, they would venture to suggest, that too wide a field of inquiry was taken to lead to immediate practical benefit: that some of the systems most confidently recommended were of a novel and speculative nature; that the regulations which it was proposed to found on them too strongly affected the interests of vested property; and that even the most valuable information communicated to the House rested upon ingenious theories, which had then been very partially, if at all, reduced to practice, or submitted to fair experiment.
As the considerations which influenced the appointment of the present Committee, avowedly sprang from the successful trial of an improved system of making roads, your Committee have judged it right to institute a particular examination into all the circumstances of that experiment, and the various instances in which the example has been followed.